Science

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Science vs. Religion – the Human Spirit

The Human Spirit Transcends Science: Science is a great tool of and for mankind.  Like any tool, it is useful in certain situation, but worthless in others.  A hammer is great for driving nails. But If I need to drive a screw into a piece of wood, the hammer is not a useful tool. In fact, it makes the job harder, or even impossible.
Our Western, rational world has a tendency to apply science like a hammer to a screw. If we put it in perspective, it’s a great tool.  However, some applications just do not fit.
An example would be to prove my mother loved me – or didn’t love me. Science is not the appropriate tool for this question.  It cannot measure love.  It doesn’t mean that some will not try to apply this tool inappropriately. Science can look at externals, such as what my mother did for me. Then propose a proof of love based on those externals.  But we can match those actions of hers using other people, or even machines. But they won’t have love as their motive. The person might be paid to do some of these duties. The machine has no ability to love.  Yet they “replicate” my mother’s loving actions toward me.
A favorable view of science can morph into worship at the altar of science. That does not bode well for humanity.  Just as money can be a great tool or resource, so can science. But love of money elevates it to an idol we worship.  We can fall into the same trap in our view of science.
Another pitfall is applying science “correctly”, but immorally.  The Nazi experiments on humans are repulsive to any who haven’t killed their conscience.  It was a “proper” use of science as a tool, but totally unacceptable when we consider values.
Is there a lesson here?  Yes.  Recognize the spiritual nature of humanity.  That requires that we acknowledge human values that transcend science.   With that perspective, we can identify the situations where science can be a help.  More importantly, we can identify where it can be misapplied. Treat science like a tool, not a god.  “Have no false gods before me…”  B.B.

Thank you, B.B.  I’m going to add a few additional points to what you’ve said, if you don’t mind.

First, the scientific understanding we have today, is not the scientific understanding we had 50 years ago or 50 years before that. Look at what we’ve learned through scientific discovery in the last 50 years. Look at what science has discovered in the 50 years before that … and before that… and before that… on into millenniums in the past.

Now, tell me what we’re going to scientifically discover in the next 50 years, and the 50 years after that, and after that and on and on into millenniums into the future. Science cannot tell us what we’ll discover, because it hasn’t been discovered. Using science, there’s no way to identify the next 50 years of scientific discovery much less millenniums beyond that.

To do this we must leap beyond the scientific understanding of today. This is the purpose of spiritual and religious thought. Spiritual and religious thought and it’s tenants cannot be proved or disproved using today’s science.   But, inadvertently and on purpose, religion and spiritual thought have given us information about things that we can strive towards – namely motivation to search for ‘the truth’ that is beyond our scientific understanding.  In effect, it hasn’t waited for science to catch up and instead seeks to show us where we’re going.

Using science, we can make conjectures coming from what’s being worked on yesterday and today, and projecting forward with common sense and experience telling us – as we seek, so we shall find – as we seek answers and discovery using science, we will find answers and discovery using science.

Unfortunately, for science, it’s also true that what we do not seek, we will not find.   I mention this in regard to the behavior among many people to ridicule and dismiss scientific research into non-physical phenomenon like spirituality, paranormal, etc.  Instead offering non-scientific based prejudices instead of scientific data.

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It is a fact of science that no matter how much a white person studies and learns about the black race, he isn’t a black person and cannot fully know the black experience. And no matter how much a black person studies and learns about the white race, they aren’t white and can never fully know the white experience. We cannot be what we are not and our knowing of the other is limited.  Science is not meant to be treated as a religion, even though many have turned it into their religion. Religious thought is not gained through scientific method but many assign it to be “science.”

The day will come that science will discover many things that have heretofore been in the realm of the spiritual and religious. Scientific study has discovered the realm of other universes and other dimensions.  It has already discovered that everything that exists, exists as vibration. Atoms are merely vibrational focuses which create certain behaviors, including the behavior that leads humans to experience “matter.” Metaphysically, it is believed that Christ’s ability to heal comes from His being the highest level of vibration of God Consciousness and His touch brought the ill into this higher vibration, changing their physical bodies in the process – like a tuning fork.

But, does scientific discovery of heretofore spiritual aspects mean that there is no God and there never was? Of course not.  To say this is what it means is like the guy in the Patent Office in early 1900 saying, “We might as well close the patent office because everything has already been invented.”  (That’s actually true – someone did say that.)  These things are not the end of discovery or belief in God, they’re the beginning.

Quite literally, we are in the dark ages still with regards to what we think is true and what we have no clue about, if we compared what we know today to what we don’t know yet to be discovered tomorrow.

As humans, we tend to consider the God that we think exists, in terms that we can understand with our mind. We’ve built religions around understandings of the mind. This is usually based on the belief that we CAN understand God with our mind – the part of us that analyzes and comes to rational understandings (based on what we understand up to that moment.) This can only mean that our understanding of God is based on what we understand in our own mind – not God’s mind – our own. So, there are limits to our understanding through both scientific thought and religious thought.

But, even so, where is the heart in this analysis? The heart isn’t a part of the analysis of the practical mind. The heart as we’ve all experienced, seems to laugh at the mind at times, because our hearts many times defy logic and analysis, reasoning and practicality.

Yet, our experience is that the heart is where Love exists. And while there may be a few that say Love is only a chemical reaction in the brain, those same people, don’t tell their children “I only love you because the chemicals in my brain go that way. Take away the chemicals and I won’t love you anymore.” Imagine what would happen inside a child’s heart if we did say that to our children.

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I’ve given practical and rational discourse on science and religion. This comes from a mental understanding of the topic. Yet, if we didn’t also have caring and compassion and love and kindness in our hearts, we wouldn’t care what people believed or what conflicts arise from beliefs. The motivation for writing this discourse as well as the motivation for all the searching and believing comes from the heart – the desire to help people understand and possibly feel that we are all in this together.

We are brothers and sisters seeking the same thing – to know ourselves, to love, to learn ultimate truths, to know what is beyond our current knowing and beyond ourselves – to answer the question – “Is scientific understanding all we are or are we more than just analysis in the mind? Are we also Love embodied and as Love embodied, a part of God, the ultimate limitless Love, – a God who possibly exists way beyond our limited scientific understanding which we have today?”

For us to hold to this belief, we must hold to something other than logic and reasoning, we must hold to that which is from the heart – which helps motivate us to open up our minds to possibilities infinite in size and scope. This is so we can answer the question, “Is Love real?”

Imagine if scientific study discovered that Love is real.  For science to do this, it must leap beyond the confines of the physical world, because when it does, it will discover much more than just that.

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“Imagine a world without science – only religion with no science – a world where science was not pursued or allowed. What kind of world would we have?
Now, imagine a different world – one without Religion – a world only of science, unlimited science with no religion – where religious beliefs were not pursued or allowed. What would that world be like?
Now imagine a world with both science and religion where both were pursued and allowed.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1998-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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The Conflict between Science and Religion and Religion and Religion

America is very big on religions. In fact, sometimes it’s as if we turn everything into a religion when the opportunity arises. Instead of saying “I don’t understand how it could be true, but I’m open to it being possible” so many of us say, “It’s not part of my beliefs – what I’ve gotten from sources (including religions), therefore it’s not true.” What religions am I referring to? I’m referring to everything that enters the mind of Man -including the religion of politics, the religion of science, the religion of medicine, the religion of technology, psychology, philosophy, and even mathematics!  (Yes, I’m even including Atheism – but that’s easy to see.)

Have you heard someone say either of these – the equivalent of words that mean “It’s not part of the science that I know of, therefore I don’t believe it.” or “It’s not part of the medical knowledge that I know of, therefore there’s no way it can be possible.”  I have.  Then, all we have to do is exchange the words ‘science’ for ‘religion’ and vice versa, and we recognize the comment.

In fact, at times we’ve even heard the equivalent of “You believing differently than this is you being gullible, misguided, delusional, or outright fraudulent.”

This is widespread, and it shows that the person saying something to this effect has turned their beliefs and knowledge into a religion.

We’ve heard so often when people have said the equivalent to “It’s not part of my religious beliefs, therefore I don’t believe it-therefore you shouldn’t either, because only my beliefs are the truth.” We see examples of this in the U.S. and all around the world.

We also have people who have turned science, medicine and all the rest into religions, as well. Yet, it’s not just a current happening. This very process has been part of mankind for millennium.

Instead of considering that it’s our own knowledge and understanding that falls short, we tend to carry out the religious ritual of pointing to others saying the equivalent to “You’re wrong to believe differently than me. My knowledge may as well be sacred.”

Since this is very easy to see when looking at history, we don’t think of it as being a current process in our society. But, it’s happening now just as often as it ever has been. It’s just that we don’t think to put it in the context of science, medicine, technology or the rest, during today’s time. Too bad, because these have been religions for a long time. It always been the heretics of these “religions” that put forth the idea that “there is something beyond what we believe is true.”  (Heretics like the Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein who pursued what others believed wasn’t true, and oh, yeah – Jesus Christ.)

Yet, bridging what we know and what we don’t know has been a tremendously difficult bridge to build. Why? Because both sides of the bridge have held strongly to that which we know or believe to be possible only, and fought hard against that which we don’t know and don’t believe being possible.

It is rare that people speaking for religions ever make the comment “My beliefs are beliefs, not necessarily proven facts.” It is rare that science or medicine or even technology ever make the comment, “We’ve found this small part to be true, but we don’t know if it could also be false or if anything else in opposition to this or outside this paradigm that we’ve never conceptualized is true or not.”

It is rare that people entrenched in their beliefs say, “I don’t know how my beliefs can mesh with opposing beliefs, opposing knowledge, factual science, but I’m open to both being true somehow.” It’s rare when people representing science and medicine say, “I don’t know how things we haven’t proven may possibly be true, but I’m open to they being possible.”

Instead, we get, people saying “Science is the truth and anything else is a delusion.” We get, people saying “This medical information is true and anything else is fraud.” We get people saying, “My religious beliefs are true, and I won’t consider anything else possible.”

The Saving Grace

The world doesn’t revolve around any persons or groups who may be stuck in their own religion whether it’s traditional religions, Scientific, Medical, Technological or any other belief or knowledge system. The Earth is inhabited by more heretics than fanatics – more open minded people than close-minded people.  These heretics are saying, “There’s more than what you espouse to be true.  You have no belief or knowledge that is omniscient and complete. ”  Thank God.

PS.  Can you see how Politics has become a religion?  How about how “beliefs about money” has become a Religion?

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“Whoever believes the world will be saved by technology, doesn’t remember Atlantis.” (The Rainbow Cards, 2014, ©, Jodie Senkyrik)

“With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

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Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that some people consider science to be their religion, and some people consider their religion to be their science.  Think about it.

Imagine a world, if there was no such thing as science – only religion.  No scientific knowledge or anything that would come from science.  What world would exist, if there was no science of any kind and only religion existed?  And no one challenged these religions?  I know what kind of world I think would exist.  Try to imagine what the world would be like with no science anywhere.

Now, imagine a different world, where there was no such thing as religion.  None whatsoever.  No spiritual beliefs, no belief in a higher power, no belief in a greater consciousness – no beliefs in anything religious or spiritual, and only science existed.  Science alone existed in the consciousnesses of all the people.  And no one ever thought any way except the scientific way.  Try to imagine what this world would be like.

To me, both of these worlds would be so imbalanced that life on either of these worlds would be far, far behind where we are now in our world.  These two worlds would be woefully incomplete and missing SO MUCH!

Now, imagine a world where science and religion both existed.  This is a world where each one may struggle against the other, but each touches and reaches a part inside us, that must be touched or reached.  Each offers something to the contribution of all of life.  In turn, each contributes to society and the growth of life in this world.  Where will they both meet?  Only inside the individual – inside the individual’s choice of finding answers for themselves.  Only within ourselves.

Although there is friction between science and religion, remember, without friction, we would not be able to use two legs and two feet to grip the road beneath us helping us to climb to the mountain tops and see far, far into the distance beyond our own vision.